Craig Cougill on roofing.

Craig Cougill: One of our specialties is that we do all types of roofs. And roofing is really all we do. We’re not a construction company. We have focused on roofing for the last 32 years, and the reason we do that is because we like to think that we have perfected it in a lot of ways.

Craig Cougill: What I mean by that is we can do the steep roofs, whether that’s shingle roofs or tile or slate. And then if there’s a flat roof — say over a patio, or even a balcony that’s going to have tile put on it — we can waterproof those areas and make that all part of our warranty and part of the envelope of the house, to make sure it’s all high quality. The flashing, the actual roofing, the flat roofs — all of that is what we do. And it’s the only thing we do.

Interviewer: Why would it be important to a homeowner to use just one contractor on the roofing system, as opposed to multiple different ones — maybe one for the steep slope, one for the flat?

Craig Cougill: If I’m a homeowner and I have a roof that has, say, a front and back porch that are flat roofs — the house is a little older and they’ve leaked on and off — but I also have a roof above that, or one that ties into one of those flat roofs, you wouldn’t want a commercial roofer doing the flat roof only and then tying into it. Because if there’s a problem at that intersection, it’s going to be a question of whose problem it is, or whose fault it is. If we’re the only ones that have been on that house, then we always take responsibility and make sure those areas are done right.

Craig Cougill: One of the things I’ve come to love about specialty roofs — especially slate, and reworking old tile roofs, reusing the old tile — is that those houses have already been around for a generation. The thought of me making that roof last another generation, on houses that might even be handed down to the kids — it’s a really cool feeling just being part of that. That’s the real draw of specialty roofs: we’re putting roofs on that’ll be here a hundred years, and you can’t say that about shingle roofs.

Transcript lightly edited for readability.

Interviewer: For homeowners who are more interested in a custom product, can you talk about the different types of products and why they would consider one versus the other?

Craig Cougill: If a customer calls me and says they’re thinking about a slate roof or something very high end, I might show them the slate roof, which is what I would prefer they use — but at a price point it can be way up here. There’s plenty of options below that, going all the way down to a standard architectural-style shingle. Between the two there are a lot of different products they may like as much as slate. One of those is composite slate. Some of the asphalt shingles have a slate-like look. So it depends on what they’re after. If they’re after something slate-related, there are a lot of choices. Tile, there are some choices, but it’s a little harder to navigate those options.

Interviewer: For homeowners who have a custom roof — whether it’s shake or tile or slate — what should they be doing maintenance-wise?

Craig Cougill: As far as maintenance on a specialty roof, we try to take care of all our customers. Some customers we take care of as often as they want — that might be every three months we clean their roof. Typically, with a slate roof, we like to look at it at least once a year, or at least once every two years, because ice storms can affect roofs like that. Just being in Arkansas, slate requires a little bit of general maintenance.

Craig Cougill: Tile, same thing. We run across a need to clean those roofs quite a bit, because if you’re under a bunch of tall trees you’ll want to stay on top of cleaning that tile — things can happen underneath that roof that we need to stay on top of.

Transcript lightly edited for readability.